BECAUSE TRAVELING IS NOT MERELY ABOUT JET-SETTING OR INSTAGRAMABLE PHOTOS

Some of you may not buy in with the headline but I have these 10 reasons to make you believe why it is so.

Why traveling is not just about jet-setting, being a high-flyer or only to get some fancy photos added to your Instagram collections?

Alright then, let's jump straight right into it!

1. TRAVELING IS WHEN YOU SPEND THE ENTIRE WEEKEND SORTING OUT WHERE TO GO

The last thing you want is planning to view the northern lights in the summer months – sure enough, that you can never get to see them. Research for destinations that make sense for the season, timing that fit in perfectly with your holiday plan and places where it won’t financially bankrupt your own bank account.

2. TRAVELING IS WHEN YOU SIT IN FRONT OF THE COMPUTER DECIDING WHICH HOTEL YOU SHOULD PUT YOURSELF IN

Some travelers don’t really care, but I do. I really do. Regardless of 1 or 5-star hotels, I do the same. My practice is I always went to different online travel agents or skim through the reviews from travel bloggers to audit the overall performance of the hotels.

3. TRAVELING IS WHEN YOU PACK AND UNPACK

When I first started traveling, one of the joy is to pack. Planning on clothes and all the gadgets. Unpack is, even more, happier because shopping made me have more stuff than when I packed. With that said, after 15 years of a serious traveling, if the duration of the trip is less than 6 days, carry-on baggage is my choice. Why? Because I have waited long enough and I’m done with waiting. Even now when I imagine myself standing and waiting at belt number 48, I can already feel the pain in my chest. On the contrary, with the carry-ons, I can go straight out to the city and let the journey begins!

4. TRAVELING IS WHEN YOU COMMITTED TO 'PHYSICALLY' TRAVEL LIGHT

And with the carry-on baggage, most rooms are for camera and lens. The rest is my travel essential kit including a mini size (less than 100 ml) of toiletry packaging, that one favorite book I can read it again and again, my note-to-self notebook, headphone and etc. And one of the perks that I enjoyed out of using the carry-on baggage is “sorry, no more rooms for shopping”

Although sometimes I feel like I had to condense my life into the carry on but so far I’m handling it quite well.

5. TRAVELING IS WHEN YOU COMMITTED TO 'EMOTIONALLY' TRAVEL LIGHT

There are times that I’m emotionally not ok, my mind is mentally somewhere else, my work is approaching the deadline, and oh boss just texted asking about the plan for the next quarter. Then again, I am standing right in front of the boarding gate, boarding in the next 10 minutes and once I landed, I will totally be in the new places, strangers, directions, fear of unknown and whatever it may be. The overwhelming amount of emotions that comes with it.

6. TRAVELING IS WHEN YOU 'NEVER' ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE A 'TOURIST' BECAUSE HAVING YOURSELF LABELED AS AN 'EXPLORER' SOUNDS MORE AWESOME

Traveling is when you spend days searching for the insights of the city, trying to map out how to get to that street restaurant in the hidden corner and act like a local. Traveling is when you create and customize your own itinerary. Visiting major attractions is totally ok and I do that too. But what I don’t do is going there just because everyone else is going. Going there and not (at least trying to) enjoy the moment, and what’s right in front of you.

I understand sometimes we got wrapped up in the society, trying to follow what everyone else is doing, and that we tend to forget that there is so much more to life. We all love stunning and beautiful photography but what is the point of having all those fancy photos posted on Instagram, getting all the ‘likes’ but you don’t actually have anything to remember about when looking into the photo?

I AM TECHNICALLY TALKING ABOUT THE 'MOMENT' AND IF YOU ARE ABLE TO MAKE A 'CONNECTION' TO THE PLACE YOU ARE VISITING, THE PLACE THAT IS WAITING FOR YOU TO BE FOUND. THERE'S HONESTLY NOTHING LIKE IT. I GUARANTEE YOU, YOU WON'T EVEN NEED A SINGLE PHOTO.

7. TRAVELING IS WHEN YOU LEARN AN ENTIRELY NEW LEVEL OF PATIENCE AND UNDERSTANDING

Simply because "there are times and places for everything". You can't gaze at the sunset whenever you want. You just have to wait and nothing else that you can do. There is no shortcut to traveling and this applies to life too.

On top of that, traveling is when you learn how to compromise when you know people are trying to rip you off and traveling is when you figure your own way out when nothing makes sense to you.

8. TRAVELING IS WHEN YOU ENGAGE YOURSELF IN A NEW CULTURE

Having yourself surrounded by unfamiliar faces, languages that you sometimes don't even know how to say hello, or it's too difficult for you to pronounce. Food that you have tried before but you don't really like it. Get to see the new ways of life. It’s figuring out how to fit in and find a level of comfort that doesn’t make you feel lost.

9. TRAVELING IS WHEN YOU MISS HOME BUT ALSO ENJOYING WHERE YOU ARE

It’s being overwhelmed with feelings of missing the people you love but not wanting to leave. It’s longing for the comforts you’re so familiar with.

10. AND... THE BEST PART OF TRAVELING IS WHEN YOU GO 'HOME'

It's that moment when I have myself seated by the window, flying to where I belong, looking out through the small window and then started to smile for no reason, thinking about the trip I just have just made. I simply can't help it but think when I will be on the road again?